Human Rights Glance
Israel has issued orders to confiscate large tracts of Palestinian land in the occupied West Bank in order to expand a road for Israeli settlers in the area.
One of the largest settler roads in the West Bank, Route 60 lies east of Ramallah and south of Nablus and its completion requires the appropriation of Palestinian land along its route.
The project will lead to the expropriation of privately owned paved agricultural land, in order to add new lanes and strengthen links between illegal Jewish settlements in the area.
Al-Mazra'a Al-Sharqiya, east of Ramallah, is among the Palestinian towns most threatened by the project, as the road runs alongside large areas of its agricultural land.
The Israeli expropriation notice announces the confiscation of hundreds of dunams, but the exact number is unknown because farmers found the confiscation orders discarded on their land rather than delivered to them directly.
Taysir Salem, a landowner in Al-Mazra'a Al-Sharqiya, told Middle East Eye his grandfather owned 180 dunams (18 hectares) of land, which his family inherited and planted with trees.
The land is now set to be confiscated.
"Route 60 will be extended through our land, and at our expense, they will take it by force and bulldoze half of a hill that belongs to us," he said.
"All the neighbouring towns will also be subjected to land theft because of the road," he added.
The official Israeli confiscation of the land is accompanied by a settler campaign to intimidate local residents and prevent them from accessing it fully.
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